The average price of a house in England could double in the next decade and hit more than £900,000 by 2034, unless there is a radical new housebuilding programme to provide nearly a quarter of a million new homes a year, a report claims today.

Russia's economy was struggling even before the crisis in Ukraine, but things have now taken a turn for the worse, according to the International Monetary Fund. GDP fell in the first three months of 2014 and will fall again in the second quarter. According to the technical definition, that would amount to a recession.